


bad times at the pine oak diner

by skuxie



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27533455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skuxie/pseuds/skuxie
Summary: sam & theo belong to my good homie, alan. god bles.
Comments: 1





	bad times at the pine oak diner

Laughs and shouts of excitement filled the air; emanating from a ragtag quintet that approached the diner with confidence. The diner’s employees knew them well, as they were regulars. This time, they had brought new blood with them in the form of a teen with long, black hair and a freckle-covered face. Coby lagged behind the group, nervously surveying the scene before him. 

Pine Oak Diner had seen better days, but the rest of the group seemed confident in the restaurant’s quality, so Coby silently followed along. Ryan, the gangly rhythm guitarist of the group yanked open the door and stood there with a goofy grin on their face as they held open the door for their friends. Theo-- who seemed unamused for some unknown reason-- disappeared into the dinner. He was followed by Sam, who received a bright smile from the doorman, then Matt, who punched Ryan in the arm and flashed something in sign language that made Ryan’s face tint red. They shook their head, bouncy black curls bobbing around their head before they turned their focus towards Coby who had stopped to watch the others head into the diner. “Right this way, dude!” Ryan gestured into the diner with a warm smile. 

Their constant state of mellow had a way of coaxing more words out of Coby than he normally wanted to share, and he returned Ryan’s look with a bashful grin, “Uh, yeah! Sorry I…I just uh.”

“Cobro, no worries! We’re all excited for you to mee--” Ryan slapped a hand over their mouth, and a muffled chuckle came out. “--eeeEEEEAT. We’re all excited for you to try the meat here.”

Coby blinked. “Uh. Okay. That’s nice of you guys...I guess?”

“Haha, yeah! Now, right this way my liege.” The rhythm guitarist attempted a curtsy, but never the graceful type, they nearly toppled over themself. 

Coby hesitated. He had only known the members of Hotheaded Cool Down for three days, but they had already gotten him into trouble on multiple occasions. He was rarely one to protest— preferring to go along for the ride, rather than cause drama— so he obliged, following the boys into the diner. 

The inside of the diner continued the theme of being slightly worn down, but in a somewhat charming way. Cherry red tables flanked by cherry red booth seats lined the outer rim of the diner. Cherry red bar seats followed the length of the chrome bar that stretched from one end of the diner to the other. A man and a woman manned the opposite side of the bar, wearing salmon colored uniforms. Behind them, the cook shouted from the window to the kitchen, alerting them when she had finished preparing a meal. Music floated through the air, emanating from a well cared for jukebox in the right corner. The jukebox’s corner was dedicated to music, it seemed, with band posters and photos decorating the walls around it. The smell of freshly baked pies and freshly cooked burgers left a pleasant aroma in the air. The corners of Coby’s mouth lifted into a small smile. It was cozy here, he liked it. Maybe he had misjudged his band mates’ intentions. They sat at the bar, excitedly talking amongst themselves. Coby joined them, taking a seat next to Theo.

Theo turned his head ever so slightly. Coby couldn’t see if the man was looking at him or not with his red and blue colored glasses, but he could feel Theo’s burning look of annoyance. The drummer had no reason to be annoyed with Coby— as far as he knew— but Coby’s heart skipped a beat in fear that he had done something to make Theo hate him. “This wasn’t my idea.” Theo said, bluntly.

Coby startled. “I—Uh! Sorry! W-What wasn’t your idea?”

Theo looked straight ahead once again. “You’ll see.”

Coby’s heart dropped into his stomach. Oh God. He was now acutely aware of just how sweaty his palms had gotten, and wiped them off on his jeans. Coby craned his neck to see around Theo’s hair and get a look at their other three companions. They were whispering and snickering, their eyes glued on the swinging double doors to the kitchen. Hundreds of different worse case scenarios raced through Coby’s mind.

The doors swung open, revealing a young woman in a short, salmon-colored dress that matched the pair at the bar. She held a tray of food in her hand. Hotheaded Cool Down let out cheers at the sight, except Theo, who gave a half-hearted whoop. The woman glided around the corner of the bar, towards the quintet on a pair of rollerskates before stopping to address her adoring fans. She shook her head as if she disapproved of the rowdiness, but her grin said otherwise. Her dark brown hair was perfectly coiffed, and freckles dotted her face. She seemed familiar, but Coby just couldn’t place it. He tried to distract himself by watching the food balancing in her hand, but his eyes kept wandering back up to her face. Coby wiped his palms off again and swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat.

“Pepper!” Shouted Sam. 

“Sammy!” The woman responded, imitating the blonde’s excited tone.

Matt signed something to the waitress, earning him a laugh and a nod. “How’s it going, Peps?” Ryan asked, a big goofy smile on their face.

“Oh I’m doing great, now that you idiots are here to make my job five hundred times more difficult.” Pepper responded with a laugh. Her attention turned to the eldest of the group, “Hi Theo.”

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

Pepper snorted. “Pleasure talking to you as always, Theodore.”

“Same to you, Patricia.”

The waitress’ face scrunched up in disgust. “That’s not my name!”

“And Theodore isn’t my name.” Theo retaliated without expression.

Pepper rolled her eyes but gave a short, breathy laugh. “Oh you KNOW I don’t have enough time in my shift to say your real name.” Her quick response managed to crack the man’s poker face with the slightest of grins. “Who’s your friend?” Pepper questioned, gesturing to Coby. Coby’s breath hitched. He was enjoying not being acknowledged. He opened his mouth to introduce himself, but a combination of taking too long to speak and his companions taking too short to speak stopped him.

“Oh God--” Theo muttered before Sammy jumping out of his seat and shouting drowned him out.

“THAT’S COBY!” Sam shouted. Coby felt his face heat up.

Ryan joined in. “He’s our NEW lead singer!” The entire diner seemed to have their attention on the group, and more specifically, on Coby. He raised his shoulders and tilted his head down, making his long, black hair fall in front of and cover part of his face. It was a habit he had formed whenever he wanted to disappear like he did now. The worst part of it was that Coby could feel Pepper’s eyes on him.

“New lead singer, huh?” Pepper questioned flatly. Oh GOD, he had pissed her off. He had no idea what he had done, but it was all his fault. More of his hair fell in front of his face. 

There was a moment of awkward silence, and Coby forced himself to squeak out a response. He looked up through the dark curtain of hair that separated him and the waitress’ judgement. “Uh…Yeah. I only joined a couple days ago. I’m. Uh. Yeah. I’m Coby. Nice to...meet you.”

“...Nice to meet you too. I’m Pepper.” She said after a moment of hesitation.

“Yeah!” Sammy kept going, this time with Ryan’s arm wrapped around his shoulders in support. “And we’re here to set you guys up on your--” He started.

“--Blind date!” Ryan finished. That was it. Sammy and Ryan had collectively shot Coby in the chest and were leaving him to bleed out on the floor. He was mortified.

“Sorry, what?” Pepper sounded angry. Coby thought maybe he had been killed, and brought back to life, only to be killed again.

“We know you like lead singers, Peps. We found a cooler, better one.” Ryan explained, completely oblivious to Pepper’s rising irritation and Coby’s increasing desire for death. 

“I appreciate the effort, but actually I don’t.” Pepper snapped. Coby wanted to cry. He wanted to lock himself up in the diner’s bathroom and never come out. “It was nice meeting you, Coby, but I have an order that’s getting cold. Excuse me.” With that, and before any of the musicians could respond, Pepper skated off to deliver the tray of food. 

Hotheaded Cool Down sat in awkward silence for a moment. “Well damn.” Sammy said, sounding extremely disappointed.

“Don’t worry dudes, we’ll get her next time.” Ryan reassured everyone. None of them believed them. “We’ll get her next time, Coby!”

Coby put his face in his hands. Hotheaded Cool Down; 5. Coby; 0. 

Sam, Ryan, and Matt went back to chatting. Coby felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to see the hand was attached to Theo. As always, the drummer’s glasses made it difficult to tell what his expression was, but it seemed somewhere between pity and apology. “Sorry they’re total dweebs.” It wasn’t much, but it was clear that was all Coby was going to get. Theo removed his hand, satisfied with his work.

“It’s… It’s ahhh. It’s alright.” Coby murmured. It wasn’t. Sneaking a peek over Theo’s shoulder, Coby watched the waitress skate around the opposite end of the diner, taking orders from anyone who wasn’t a member of Hotheaded Cool Down. She was pretty, and Coby wouldn’t have had a single issue of a blind date with her if his companions had given him a single warning, but it didn’t seem she shared the same sentiment. Coby’s stomach churned. What could he have possibly done wrong to scare her off? He replayed the entirety of the interaction in his mind, over and over, agonizing over every possible detail or mistake he could have made. He sighed. His face was still very warm. God, he wished the others had given him a warning. He  **wished** they were normal.

God. What had he gotten himself into?

  
  



End file.
